ANALYSIS OF PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS IN IRBID CITY, JORDAN

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1 ANALYSIS OF PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS IN IRBID CITY, JORDAN Bashar Al-Omari 1 & Eman Obaidat Civil Engineering Department Jordan University of Science & Technology bahomari@just.edu.jo Summary: The main objective of this study was to analyze pedestrian accidents in Irbid city based on pedestrian characteristics, driver characteristics, accident time, accident location, weather, road surface condition, illumination condition, vehicle characteristics, speed limit, accident severity, pedestrian faults, and driver faults. Analysis was based on data of 1090 pedestrian accidents occurred during the three years ( ). Traffic volumes, pedestrian volumes, and vehicle speeds were also measured over the major 21 streets in the study area. Also, data on roadway geometry, pedestrian facilities, and land use characteristics were measured through field surveys. Geographic Information System (GIS) approach was used to identify the pedestrian accidents prone locations. Furthermore, the exposure based pedestrian accident prone locations in the city were also identified. Regression analysis was used to determine the effects of the major operational factors (vehicle speed, traffic volume, and pedestrian volume) on pedestrian safety. It was found that those operational factors have significant effects on pedestrian safety for both sections and intersections. However, it was found that the operational factors can not alone explain the variability in the number of pedestrian accidents, and adding some planning and geometric design variables have significant contribution in explaining the variability in the occurrence of pedestrian accidents. Keywords: Pedestrian, Accidents, Speed, Volume, Irbid, Jordan. INRODUCTION The problem of pedestrian accidents in Jordan is growing and becoming more serious over the years. Statistics reported by the Jordan Traffic Institute (2000) indicated that 52,796 traffic accidents occurred during the year 2000, which have resulted into a total of 686 deaths and 18,842 injuries. Pedestrians were involved during the same period in 11.1 % of traffic accidents, that have resulted into 43.2 % of accident deaths and 30.9 % of accident injuries. The percentage of pedestrian fatalities as compared to fatalities of all traffic accidents is very high in Jordan (43.2 % in 2000) while it ranges for the EU countries from 10.4 % in Belgium to 27.5 % in Ireland and it is 12.6 % in USA and 13.1 % in Canada (Latinopoulou et al, 2001). USA has lower values because in the US almost every pedestrian is a driver that makes him/her 1 Corresponding Author: Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Vice Dean of Research, Jordan University of Science & Technology, P. 0. Box 3030, lrbid Jordan, Tel: ( / 22102), Fax: ( ).

2 Al-Omari & Obaidat 2 more familiar with the traffic environment (Choueiri et al, 1993). On the other hand, in Jordan and many other developing countries, there is a low auto ownership, so most journeys are made on foot resulting in more likelihood of people being on the streets facing the risk of being hit by vehicles. The characteristics of pedestrian accidents in Irbid city were investigated for the three years ( ). Data on traffic accidents were obtained from traffic directorate, public security headquarters, Jordan. Each pedestrian accident was located on Irbid streets map, using geographic information system (GIS) software and separate analysis was conducted for sections and intersections. The study included the analysis of the accident characteristics, the identification of pedestrian accident prone locations, and the effects of the major operational factors on pedestrian safety. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The main objectives of this research were as follows: 1. To analyze pedestrian accidents in Irbid city based on pedestrian characteristics (age and gender), driver characteristics (age, gender, and license type), accident time (hour, day, and month), accident location (street, intersection & other), weather, road surface condition, illumination condition, vehicle characteristics, speed limit, accident severity, pedestrian faults, and driver faults. 2. To identify the pedestrian accidents prone locations in the city (had the highest number of pedestrian accidents). 3. To determine the effects of the major operational factors (vehicle speed, traffic volume, and pedestrian volume) on pedestrian safety. DATA COLLECTION AND CLASSIFICATION Pedestrian Accidents Data Data on pedestrian traffic accidents were obtained from traffic directorate, public security head quarters, Irbid. After reviewing the traffic accident reports for the three years period ( ), 1090 pedestrian accidents reports were separated from a total of about (10,000) traffic accident reports that included all types of accidents. The following are the major data items that exist in the accident report and help in analyzing pedestrian accidents: 1. Location of the accident, based on the written description of the accidents with the help of the sketches when existed. 2. Pedestrian age, gender and action (disregarding pedestrian traffic light, crossing from an incorrect location, crossing in front of parked vehicle, working, playing, walking on the road, pushing a carriage, crossing at a zebra crossing, waiting to ride, getting in or out of a vehicle, crossing a pedestrian traffic light, getting in or out of a school bus, walking on side walks, riding a bicycle, off road, crossing the road, walking in a terminal). 3. Driver age, gender, license type (no license, type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or foreign license), and fault (driving opposite to traffic direction, incorrect overtaking, exceeding speed limit,

3 Al-Omari & Obaidat 3 using incorrect lane, incorrect bending and turning, driving under the influence of alcohol, tail gating, incorrect parking, failing to comply with obligatory signs, disregarding a traffic light signal, not giving priority to vehicles, not giving priority to pedestrians, incorrect reversing). 4. Vehicle category (motor cycle, agricultural vehicle, construction vehicle, small passenger car, minibus, bus, truck, dual-purpose vehicle, special purpose vehicle) and vehicle type (foreign, government, private, public, and recreation). 5. Road surface condition (dry, wet, snowy, icy), illumination condition (daylight, night with sufficient light, night with insufficient light, dark) and weather condition (clear, fog, rain, snow, strong wind, dust). 6. Accident severity (slight, medium, severe injury, fatality). 7. Time of the day, day of the week, and month of the year. 8. Speed limit. Some difficulties were faced while collecting pedestrian accident data, such as: all accident reports for several years were mixed together in the traffic directorate, and many missing information were noticed in many reports, especially the location of the accident. It was estimated that about 40 % of accident reports did not show the exact location of the accident. Presentation of pedestrian accidents data The Geographic information system (GIS) has been used for the analysis and recording of pedestrian accidents. Using GIS with arcview 3.0 to locate all pedestrian accidents, the locations of accidents were drawn as points on streets on Irbid map. After locating the accidents in the proper locations, each year had a separate layer (theme) over the base layer (the map). After that, all other characteristics of the accidents were added. Using the capabilities of GIS program on the analysis of pedestrian accidents, one can easily know the characteristics of any accident or group of accidents at any location. Also, many statistics, comparisons, and classifications can be done using GIS. Selection of Sites With High Frequency of Pedestrian Accidents It was noticed that most of pedestrian accidents were located on 21 streets. The analysis of the operational factors will concentrate on those 21 streets. Many field visits were made to those streets to divide them into two main categories; sections and intersections. The main base for this division was to have homogeneous sections depending on pedestrian activities, traffic volumes, and roadway geometry. The section was considered homogeneous if the number of crossing pedestrians is approximately equally distributed over its length, no major changes in traffic volumes and had the same number of lanes in addition to the other geometric variables such as existence of islands. This has produced a total of 124 sections (mid blocks) and (111) intersections. A naming procedure was done using alphabets from (A U) for the 21 streets, and with a clock wise from top to bottom using even numbers for sections and odd numbers for intersected streets.

4 Al-Omari & Obaidat 4 Operational factors data Vehicle speed. The speed data was collected based on the 85 th percentile and average speeds for 40 data points at each location using the speed gun radar, during off peak periods. The section speeds were calculated based on the average of the two directions. The intersection speeds were calculated based on the average of the entering speeds. Traffic volumes. Traffic volume is a major factor affecting pedestrian safety since the accident occurs as a result of the conflict between pedestrians and vehicles. Traffic volumes were estimated based on the manual traffic counts conducted by JUST Consultative Center as part of the traffic study for Irbid Municipality. The traffic volumes were used to estimate the 12 hours daytime volumes for sections by adding the volumes for the two directions, and for intersections by summing the total entering volumes. Pedestrian volumes. Pedestrian volumes were counted manually during the spring semester of The counts were conducted during the sunny working days in the middle of the week. This is to have a normal pedestrian and vehicle activities without any unusual conditions. The following Procedure was followed in counting pedestrian volumes: 1. The whole study area (intersections and sections) was divided into five zones depending on land use. These zones are industrial, university, terminal, commercial, and residential areas. 2. From each of the first four zones and based on experience and field visits, the locations that had the highest pedestrian activities were selected. Pedestrian counts were conducted at the four locations for 12 hours period from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Special forms were used for that purpose, and the counting process covered pedestrians who were crossing the two directions of the section or the legs of the intersection in addition to those who walked on the street causing a direct conflict with traffic. A distance of 20-m was taken into consideration from the corner of the intersection for each leg as part of the intersection (Jadaan, 1992). The resulted data from the previous field work after tabulating was used to plot profiles of counted pedestrians based on 15 minutes time interval for 12 hours. 3. The peak pedestrian activiteis occurred at 10:00 11:00 AM for the industrial area, 3:45-4:45 PM for the terminal area, 12:15-1:15 PM for the commercial area, 1:45-2:45 PM for the university area, 11:45-12:45 PM and from 1:15-2:15 PM for the residential area. 4. After that, for each zone and at its critical hour, field visits were done for all zones. Each location in the study area was classified according to three levels of pedestrian activities and volumes; low, medium, and high. 5. Samples from locations of low and medium levels of pedestrian volumes and almost all locations with heavy pedestrian volumes were counted for the critical hour. It was assumed that the other locations within the same levels of pedestrian activities in the low and medium levels have similar pedestrian volumes.

5 Al-Omari & Obaidat 5 Geometry and Land use variables After collecting the operational data, both geometric variables surrounding the roads and pedestrian facilities affecting the pedestrian safety were also collected. Field measurements were conducted using tapes and the odometer. The following geometric and land use data were collected for intersections: land use type (commercial, residential, industrial, terminal, and university), type of intersection (rotary, cross, T-shaped), type of control (rotary, signal, and stop sign), area of the intersection (m 2 ), number of legs at the intersection, total number of lanes, number of divided islands, number of refuge islands, number of humps at the entries, number of intersection corners, and number of schools. The following geometric and land use data were collected for sections: land use type, length of the section (m), number of lanes, type of section (divided or not divided), operation type (1-way or 2-way), roadway class (major or minor), median width (m), carriageway width (sum of the 2 directions, m), sidewalk width (sum of the 2 directions, m), obstacles per 100 meter (sum of the 2 directions), parking vehicles rate (low, medium, and high), number of humps, number of schools, number of public buildings, number of median openings along the section, and number of minor 4-leg intersections along the section. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Analysis of Pedestrian Accidents According to age groups. The highest relative involvement of the pedestrian casualties (by age groups and per 100,000 population within each age group) was for the age groups (6-10), (0-5), (11-15), & (56-60) respectively. Children below 15 years old who formed 43 % of the city population, accounted for about 64 % of pedestrian accidents. Similar results were found for the whole country by Al-Masaeid (1998). According to accident location. The majority of pedestrian accidents 69.4 % occurred at mid blocks, and a total of 26.8 % occurred at intersections. The rest of pedestrian accidents 3.8 % occurred at bus terminals. Mid blocks are at more risk because of higher speeds, on street parking, and interruptions to both drivers and pedestrians. At terminals, the randomness of traffic causes many pedestrian accidents. According to road surface condition. Higher accident rate occurs in dry surface conditions (95.5 %) as compared to wet conditions. This was expected because pedestrians tend to avoid walking on the streets under rainy conditions. According to illumination condition. The majority of pedestrian accidents (82.1 %) occurred in daylight, a bout 15.6 % during nighttime with sufficient light, 2.0 % during nighttime with insufficient light and only 0.3 % in dark. These results are expected because this study was conducted for the urban area of the city where most of the pedestrian trips end with the sun set except for some attractive locations in some streets with sufficient light. A study in Saudi Arabia

6 Al-Omari & Obaidat 6 presented the same results and showed that for most cities, the majority of accidents occurred during the day (Al-Senan, 1993). According to accident severity. Pedestrian accidents resulted into 73.5 % of slight injuries, 18.7 % of medium injuries, 5.1 % of severe injuries and 2.7 % of fatalities. According to pedestrian gender. Males accounted for about 72.3 % of the pedestrian involvements in traffic accidents. This is due to higher mobility of the male population in Islamic societies. In Kuwait, more than 80 % of the pedestrian victims were males (Koushki, 2001). According to the time of the day. It was found that accidents are more frequent during (12:00 3:00) PM with a percentage of 28.3 % followed by (3:00 6:00) PM with 23.9 %. These intervals represent peak traffic and pedestrian volumes. It should be noted that the interval (1:00 2:00) PM had the highest pedestrian accidents rate because it is the end of the working day in most of the public agencies in Jordan and it is also the end of school day for the majority of schools. According to the day of the week. It was found that pedestrian accidents are more frequent during Thursdays 16.5 %, followed by Sundays 16.1 %. These two days represent the end and the start of the working days before and after the weekend. These two days are characterized by more activities and high movements of pedestrians. According to the month of the year. Monthly distribution of pedestrian accidents indicates that July is the peak month (11.8 %). This agrees with Gharaybeh and Al-Momani (1998) study for greater Amman. This summer month with long, warm, and active days, with school holiday, and the presence of large number of visiting Jordanian expatriates, have more pedestrian and vehicle activities. According to weather condition. The majority of pedestrian accidents (94.2 %) have occurred during clear weather condition and only 4.6 % of pedestrian accidents occurred in rainy conditions. According to vehicle category. The majority of pedestrian accidents (73.4 %) are caused by small passenger cars, followed by dual-purpose vehicles (12.0 %) and then trucks (7.8 %). This was expected because the small passenger cars are the largest components of the traffic fleet in Jordan. According to vehicle license type. Private vehicles were involved in 61.4 % of the total pedestrian accidents while public vehicles were involved in 32.9 %. According to driver license type. Drivers with private license type were involved in 45.6 % of pedestrian accidents while drivers with public license type or higher were involved in 50.3 % of pedestrian accidents. It should be noted that drivers without any license were involved in 4.1 % of pedestrian accidents showing that more enforcement is needed for this category in Irbid city.

7 Al-Omari & Obaidat 7 According to speed limit. The majority of pedestrian accidents have occurred at speed limits of 40 km/hr (65.2 %) and 50 km/hr (27.8 %). But it is known that drivers do not comply with low speed limits. Koushki (2001) reported in Kuwait that high speed caused 17 % of pedestrian accidents, and speed was cited as the major cause for pedestrian fatality. Jensen (1999) found that the proportion of pedestrians killed in crashes increases in step with the speed limit. According to pedestrian actions. The majority of pedestrians (59 %) were hit by vehicles while crossing the road. Without clear and marked crosswalk, pedestrians cross the streets randomly. According to driver faults. The major driver fault was not giving priority to pedestrians with (37 %) followed by incorrect reversing (4.6 %), and then exceeding speeding limit (2.3 %). According to driver gender. Male drivers accounted for 97.5 % of the pedestrian accidents. This was expected since female drivers constitute a small proportion of Jordanian drivers. According to driver age. The majority of involved drivers in pedestrian accidents were young drivers (18-30) years old with about 48 %. Pedestrian accidents Prone Locations in Irbid City The computer record system GIS, was utilized to produce rankings of high accident locations, based on the number of accidents and accident rates by location. The accident prone locations were identified based on the critical number/rate: CN = a + K (a) 1/ (1) Where: CN = critical number/rate of accidents. a = average number/rate of accidents. K = constant related to probability level (at 95 % confidence, K = 1.645). In calculating the accident rates, the exposure measures were average daily traffic volumes, pedestrian volumes, and the length of the section for sections. While, for intersections, the exposure measures included the average daily entering traffic volumes, and the peak hour crossing pedestrian volumes. Effect of Operational Factors on Pedestrian Safety The main objective of this section is to investigate the effect of operational factors (traffic volume, vehicle speeds, and pedestrian volume) on pedestrian safety in Irbid city. The same division criteria for the study area into two groups, sections and intersections, was followed. This has produced an area of study that consists of two groups: sections group which consisted of 142 sections and intersections group which consisted of 93 intersections. Many different functions and formulations of both dependent and independent models were tested. The following regression model was obtained for sections (R 2 = 14.7 %): Ln A1 = * S * Ln (ADT / P1) (2)

8 Al-Omari & Obaidat 8 Where: A1 S1 ADT P1 = Avg. no of pedestrian accident / year / km. = Avg. speed. = Average daily traffic volume. = pedestrian volume / section / hr. The following regression model was obtained for intersections (R 2 = 22.8 %): Ln A = * Ln S * Ln P + (2.52 * 10-5 ) * ADT (3) Where: A S ADT P = Avg. no of pedestrian accident / year. = 85 th % Entering speed. = Average daily traffic volume. = pedestrian volume / hr. It should be noted that the adjusted R-square increases significantly be adding the planning and geometric variables to the models, reaching a value of 46.3 % for sections and 48.3 % for intersections. This means that the operational variables are not sufficient to explain the variability in the occurrence of the traffic accidents. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results of the analysis for the characteristics of pedestrian accidents in Irbid City - Jordan, it can be concluded that : Children (6-10) and (0-5) years old, accounted for the highest pedestrian accident rate as compared to other age groups. The majority of pedestrian accidents occurred at non-intersection locations (midblocks, bus terminals, ), during clear and sunny weather, on dry surface, and during daylight conditions. Most of the pedestrian accidents have resulted into slight and medium injuries. Males accounted for much higher number of pedestrian accidents as compared to females. Pedestrian accidents were more frequent during the time period 12:00-3:00 PM, on Thursdays, and in July. Small passenger cars and dual-purpose vehicles were involved in the majority of pedestrian accidents. Private cars accounted for much higher number of pedestrian accidents as compared to public cars. Drivers with private license type were involved in the majority of pedestrian accidents. The majority of pedestrian accidents occurred at speed limits of 40 and 50 km/hr. The majority of pedestrians were hit by vehicles while crossing the road and the driver fault not giving priority to pedestrians was responsible for the highest percentage of pedestrian accidents.

9 Al-Omari & Obaidat 9 Male drivers accounted for much higher number of pedestrian accidents as compared to female drivers. The majority of involved drivers in pedestrian accidents were young drivers (18-30 years old). The major operational factors (speed, traffic volume and pedestrian volume) have significant effects on pedestrian safety for both sections and intersections. However, the operational factors can not alone explain the variability in the number of pedestrian accidents, and adding some planning and geometric design variables have significant contribution in explaining that variability. RECOMMENDATIONS Improving pedestrian safety in Irbid City requires consideration of four main elements: driver behavior, pedestrian behavior, roadway characteristics and land use planning. The driver and pedestrian behaviors can be improved by focused education programs and increased enforcement levels. Roadway and land use characteristics can provide safer environment for pedestrians by following the engineering standards for every highway geometric and planning element, such as: Reducing the number of 4-leg intersections within major arterials. Reducing crossing distances by increasing number of refuge islands. Providing playground areas for children. Planning for schools locations not to be located along busy arterials, and apply adequate traffic control devices and cross walks for existing schools. Bus terminals must be will designed with proper and safe exits and entrances for both vehicles and pedestrians. Providing underpasses, overpasses or traffic signals at all locations with high pedestrian densities. Use of continuous and suitable sidewalks. Use of one way streets in down town areas. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors are very grateful to the Deanship of Research at the Jordan University of Science & Technology for the research financial sponsorship. REFERENCES Al-Masaeid, H. R. (1998) Characteristics and Costs of Road Accidents in Jordan Proceedings of the Safety on Roads: International Conference (SORIC 98) Bahrain, pp

10 Al-Omari & Obaidat 10 Al-Senan, S., Ergun, G., and Al-Khabbaz, A. (1993) Characteristics of Pedestrian Accidents in Selected Cities of Saudi Arabia Transportation Research Record. 1405, Washington, DC, pp Choueiri, E., Lamm, R., Choueiri, G., & Choueiri, B. (1993) Pedestrian Accidents: A 15-Year Survey from the United States and Western Europe ITE Journal, pp Gharaybeh, F., and Al-Momani, Z. (1998) Evaluation of Pedestrian Related Traffic Control Measures in Greater Amman MS Thesis at the Civil Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science & Technology, Irbid, Jordan. Jadaan K and Nicholson A. (1992) Relationship Between Road Accidents and Traffic Flows in an Urban Network Traffic Engineering & Control, 33(9): Jensen, S. U. (1999) Pedestrian Safety in Denmark Presented at the 79 th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D. C. Jordan Traffic Institute (2000) Traffic Accidents in Jordan, Amman- Jordan. Koushki, P., Al-Saleh, O., Yaseen, S. and Ali, M. (2001) On Fatal and Injurious Pedestrian Accidents Presented at the 80 th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D. C. Latinopoulou, M., Tsohos, G., Basbas, S., and Kokkalis, A. (2001) Investigation of Accidents Involving Vulnerable Road Users in Greek Urban Areas Proceeding of the Traffic Safety on Three Continents Conference. Moscow, Russia, pp